


Making Do

by tracingemily



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-17 10:52:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15459765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tracingemily/pseuds/tracingemily
Summary: After a particularly destructive battle, sometimes sacrifices have to be made in the rebuilding. Of course, some sacrifices are harder than others.





	Making Do

**Author's Note:**

  * For [caycep](https://archiveofourown.org/users/caycep/gifts).



> The prompt from caycep: "Maybe this wasn't a good idea, but hey, we now have a dog!"

Kara was just about at her wits' end. Her recent fight with Silver Banshee had left the entire neighborhood in ruins, and no amount of work she put in helping to fix and rebuild seemed to be enough. It was all her fault. Or at least that's what the National City media had decided, and it was difficult not to internalize it. 

Kara knew she hadn’t exactly been operating at peak performance lately, but it was hard to keep her head in the game with a long-distance relationship giving her new and innovative sources of stress. And of course it didn't help that said relationship was with the Press Secretary for the President of the United States. Cat's work had always been her life, but this next step in her career seemed to have taken over her life even more. They were together as much as possible, but there were no true days off for Cat anymore, and they hadn’t told Carter her identity yet, so as much as Kara would have loved to take advantage of her super speed to spend nights in Washington D.C. and days in National City, there would be too many questions. It was getting to the point where she was almost considering throwing her dual identity to the wind. At least that would be simpler. 

Kara set down in front of a warehouse which several businesses were making use of as a staging area while their storefronts were being repaired. The pallet full of supplies she carried settled, making enough noise to alert someone from inside. She didn’t need her super hearing to be able to tell that the animals from the pet rescue shelter that Silver Banshee had destroyed as a distraction (really, how heartless could you get?) were very unhappy. She winced, the agitated barking and whimpering hurting so much worse than the barbs being thrown at her in the press. 

“Thanks for the airlift, Supergirl,” said the woman coming out to meet her. “Some food and water should help calm everyone down a lot.” She stuck her hand out with a friendly smile. “I’m Celia, I run the pet shelter.” 

“I’m glad I can help.” Kara shook the woman’s hand and helped her start to unload, handing off a box of food and lifting up a large tank of water to carry herself. “I couldn’t keep Silver Banshee from caving your shelter in, so I figure it’s the least I could do.” 

“You’re listening to too much talk radio,” replied Celia, frowning at her as they carried the food and water in. “She would’ve done a whole lot more damage if you hadn’t been there to stop her. You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself.” 

“Maybe,” Kara said, setting down the water tank and making half a dozen super speed trips back and forth for the rest of the pet food. “It’s hard to see all that damage and not think that I could’ve done more though, you know?” 

“Well, I don’t really see how you could have done much more at the time, and you’re sure doing a lot now.” 

“I guess.” Kara shrugged, smoothing her skirt down idly. “Is there anything else I can do?” She looked out on the rows of cages unhappily. “They seem so miserable.” 

“Well, maybe there is.” Celia started walking down one of the rows, and Kara followed behind her. “We have to share this space with the other businesses from our street, and there isn’t really enough room for all of us right now, so everyone’s a little crammed in at the moment.” She paused about halfway down the row. “I don’t suppose you know someone who can look after a few of our friends for a few days, do you?” 

“I...might.” Kara paused and knelt down in front of one of the cages, where a small golden-haired dog had stuck its paw through the cage to try to get her attention. 

“I wouldn’t trust just anyone with this, but you’re...you know.” Celia grinned. It was obvious that Kara hadn’t heard a word of what she’d just said. 

“Hi there,” said Kara, putting her hand on the wall of the cage. “I’m sorry everything’s so crazy for you right now.” The dog sniffed at her hand briefly before starting to lick it, and Kara laughed. 

“That’s Artemis,” said Celia. “She’s been with us for a while. She’s one of our hard luck cases, she was malnourished when she was little, so she has some health issues. People don’t like adopting pets with health problems.” 

“That’s _terrible_!” Kara looked briefly up at Celia, then back down to Artemis. “Do you need a place to stay?” Artemis cocked her head to the side and let out a very soft noise, too soft to really be called a bark. “I think you need a friend.” 

All in all, Kara arranged for five dogs to have foster homes for a week or two. Winn and James each took one, and she took three, including Artemis. Her apartment wasn’t large, but neither were any of the dogs she took, and she figured she could deal with three dogs for a week. 

After a couple of hours she discovered that even with superpowers, three dogs were more than a handful. She managed to shepherd two of them back into their cages, in the hopes that they’d settle down and sleep after all of the exercise they’d gotten leading her in chases all around her apartment, but Artemis had decided to take up residence under her bed. As Kara was trying to coax her out, her phone started ringing. She brought it up to her ear without checking who it was. 

“H’lo?” 

“Good evening to you too, Kara _dear_ ,” came Cat’s voice, in an exaggerated scolding tone. 

“Oh!” Kara pulled herself back out from under the bed and sat up. “Hi honey! Sorry, I didn’t look at my phone. How was your day?” 

“Well for once nobody managed to screw up too badly for a few hours, so today was relatively easy. How about yours, still cleaning up after Silver Banshee?” 

“Yeah...mostly.” She looked over her shoulders at the three dog cages in her apartment. “There’s still a lot of work to do.” 

At this point Artemis, presumably having heard Kara speaking to someone not her, decided it was time to regain Kara’s attention, and crawled out from under the bed, nudging her hand. Kara scratched her neck absentmindedly, but not well enough apparently, because Artemis climbed onto her lap and started whining for more attention. 

“...Kara, what was that?” 

“Oh that? That was uh...that was Artemis.” Kara hadn’t really wanted to tell Cat that she was fostering three dogs, but Artemis had very clearly blown that, and she wasn’t going to just _lie_ to Cat. 

“And who...or should I say _what_ , is Artemis?” Cat’s voice was beginning to get a slightly dangerous edge, and Kara decided it was best to come completely clean. She told Cat about the shelter, and the limited space, and how she had volunteered to look after three dogs for a week or two. 

“...and it’s fine, they’re kind of a handful, but they’re really sweet!” Kara tried to frown at Artemis as Cat heaved a sigh on the other end of the line, but it was to no avail. 

“And how many of the three have you fallen completely in love with?” 

“Not...all of them…” Kara pouted at how thoroughly she’d been called out. 

“Well I suppose I can’t be surprised, it was only a matter of time before some small furry beast melted your heart.” Cat sighed again, and Kara grinned. 

“I’ll send you a picture of Artemis. She’s adorable, you’ll love her.” 

“Fine,” Cat sighed. “And make sure to send it to Carter too.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you like it! It was a fun prompt to write!


End file.
